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[state] repression of dissent

This is a homage to all those women out there fighting on the streets of Egypt, to those whose voices and faces were hidden from the public eye during the first days of the revolution! The album by now has traveled the world back and forth via online social networks, blogs and websites. First and foremost the credit for this album goes to the courageous people of Egypt who are teaching us that freedom is taken and not given. See url link below

Two members of an Amnesty International fact-finding team were among five human rights workers and journalists freed by Egyptian military police late on Friday night after a day and half in detention. The five were among some 35 Egyptian and international human rights activists, lawyers and journalists arrested Thursday when military police raided the offices of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center in Cairo. Update to Egypt: List of detained lawyers & activists from Hisham Mubarak Law Centre in Cairo

Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, reported yesterday that several international and Egyptian human rights activists, journalists and lawyers were picked up in a raid on the Hisham Mubarak Law Center in Cairo. The activists are currently detained at an unknown location in Egypt, and no news has been heard from them since their arrest. According to Bouckaert, the arrests are part of a clear campaign against independent eyewitnesses of the violence in Egypt, including journalists and civil society activists.” If you know more names tell @bouckap!#jan25http://is.gd/FS8kG2

First of all, I have to apologize to the readers for any grammatical mistakes, or if I make no sense; my mental capacities are at their lowest level due lack of sleep for three days. On the 25 January, 2011, a revolution began. Tens of thousands of Egyptians headed to Tahrir (Independence Square), the main square of Cairo, to end decades of despotism, tyranny and brutality. The calls came from a Facebook page called ‘We are all Khaled Said’, an Egyptian icon tortured and killed by the policemen. Thousands of people clicked “attending” and the virtual came real. The Mubarak regime cracked down on the peaceful protests, increasing their brutality in the hope that the protesters would give up. But, I am proud to say that we defeated fear; we are claiming our rights!

If the military is ever to be a legitimate national force, it must side with the protesters against Mubarak’s thugs and the police. These thugs have been ridiculously and mistakenly labeled by right-wing media as “pro-Mubarak demonstrators. This critical junction in the Egyptian Uprising when is the Egyptian Army’s moment of truth. As thousands of unarmed demonstrators are tortured, trampled, firebombed and molested by Mubarak’s thugs, will the military move to protect, or to crush the non-violent democratic movements that have occupied Tahrir Square in Cairo for the last ten days? Following on Paul Amar’s useful analysis (Jadaliyya, 1 Feb 2011) we need to know which faction of which of the Army's branches is ascendant, and where exactly, within these forces, we can energize possible allies.

For more than two decades, Mubarak's regime tried to change the structure of Egyptian society through the creation of a class that is loyal to it and benefited from its gains. These gains appeared to flow from Hosni Mubarak’s continuing presidency and his son Gamal’s eventual take-over. The regime put an emphasis on establishing private schools and universities which taught international curriculums, as well as opening the doors for international corporations at which the graduates of these schools and universities would be offered lucrative jobs. It also built luxury malls and attractions; this new class was intended to spend its entire income on imported goods and social diversions.